LEGION / GUNNER (Dwight H. Little, 1987-1988) (unproduced)

[Jox]

Another aborted project was also called LEGION, but nothing to do with the Damian Lee one.

It was developed around 1988 for the late company Vestron Pictures, written by Alan McElroy (SPAWN, WRONG TURN) and to be directed by Dwight H. Little (MARKED FOR DEATH, RAPID FIRE) after they had done HALLOWEEN IV together. I think this could have been made around the time of RED SCORPION and THE PUNISHER.

The plot was as follows according to writer McElroy:

"A former cop who has fallen off the grid after a tragedy ruined his life. He's then tracked down and recruited by his former boss at the LAPD to help them find a rogue CIA agent, codenamed Legion, who appears to be on a killing spree."

At some point the title was changed to GUNNER (not Gunnar!) because that was the character's nickname. It never got to actual pre-production because when Vestron got another management, the project was abandoned... until it was reshaped many years later and turned into the Antonio Banderas vehicle BALLISTIC: ECKS VS. SEVER (2002) (produced by Franchise Pictures)!

[dude hallenbeck]

Ballistic is a notorious bad film. I'd imagine it still would've gotten bad reviews in the early 1990s but I think it would've had more merit than what we eventually got.

[Jox]

it's hard to tell how it would have been, had they made it in the late 80s. You can imagine as often in those cases that after almost 15 years of development hell and probably a dozen uncredited rewriters, the final product must have become worse and worse as they tried to make it "cooler" and more "modern", with not much to do with the spirit of the original project.

[Krom]

Every Dolph movie made in the 80s early 90s would have been gold for us, except a Cover Up type of movie!